


Animals

by EllieCarina



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, sykeward
Genre: And angst, And then some fluff, Angry Sex, F/M, Smut, Spuffy, so much sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 06:24:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3757780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieCarina/pseuds/EllieCarina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So what you trying to do to me<br/>It's like we can't stop, we're enemies<br/>But we get along when I'm inside you"</p><p>Based on the Maroon 5 song, this is about Skye and Ward dealing with their history in the horizontal way. It's steamy and complicated but it's them. Set after 2x18 and thus speculative but based in canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Animals

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends. This was a beast to crank out but I needed it out of my system. It is unbeta's and there are bound to be mistakes but I AM very proud of it and comments would make my world.
> 
> This was definitely inspired by the Spuffy relationship from Whedon's own Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. If you know them, you will find the parallels in here. 
> 
> This is basically a couple of smut scenes with some plot and some serious angst in the beginning and fluff in the end. I hope it will leave you satisfied.
> 
> I don't know what they have in store for us with Skyeward..but I do wish it was something like this.

** Animals **

 

So what you trying to do to me   
It's like we can't stop, we're enemies   
But we get along when I'm inside you

 

Yeah, you can start over, you can run free   
You can find other fish in the sea   
You can pretend that it was me    
But you can't stay away from me

 

It started a month into Ward's return to the team. It was just a proverbial return because for all intents and purposes, he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent again but wasn't called or treated as such.

He was an asset and he wasn't _really_ part of the team because no one _really_ trusted him. Yet, he had proven valuable enough against Hydra and had with no complaint accepted that he was to wear a tracker bracelet, perfect with an ICER switch and spent every outside engagement under constant surveillance. He was, in practice, a prisoner at the Playground and it seemed a logical enough choice for Ward too, because it wasn't actual prison and he still retained a certain amount of freedom and agency.

 

In truth, he couldn't have cared less about going to prison, he'd have handled himself there just as well. But there was no Skye in prison and so when Coulson put the deal on the table Ward had signed faster than his ex-boss could properly lay down the paper. Ward's day to day was strict. He slept in a room with a camera trained on the door 24/7, got up every morning at 5:30 to go through his exercising routine, had breakfast (usually alone since he'd driven people away from the table by merely entering the kitchen), exercised some more and then waited for debrief. On days with a mission he did that on days without, he got swamped with senseless and always unimportant desk work. Then he ate dinner, in his room alone, took a shower and went to bed.

 

He saw Skye in between all that but she made it a point not to see him. She had given him the cold shoulder for a solid two weeks before talking to him again but then always curt and cold. After those two weeks she had a bit of a situation in the field which led to Skye having to train how to find someone in hand-to-hand-combat without making their blood explode in their veins. Naturally, Ward volunteered and as he was the most expandable, Coulson agreed. Skye had been less than pleased at first...but then she found beating the shit out of him every other day – and using her special gifts to enhance the experience – did give her enough satisfaction to put up with him in close quarters.

 

A month in, Skye had ordered (not asked) him to a late night session. Way late, because she couldn't sleep and because either way, he couldn't deny her. They stood on the opposing sides of the huge training matt which covered most of the gym on the third sub-level and began their routine. Skye never spoke much, just stood there in her work out tank-top and leggins looking perpetually pissed. She didn't come to talk, she came just to hit him. He hit her back but always in moderation, just to keep her on her toes and while May had already taught her a lot, she still got better training with him. She mainly got better at controlling her abilities, which was impressive because otherwise, she did not control herself at all. She launched herself at him with brute force every time, put everything in every punch and was viciously trying to hurt him as much as she could. It was his tri-weekly dose of wrath from her, hour upon hour of payback and she never seemed willing to call it even. This day was no different.

 

“You're too slow,” he said after a fair amount of punches taken and received, and in a quick move she hadn't anticipated, he bent her body over his knee and put her on the ground, “and you're making the lights flicker.”

 

She got to her feet again and huffed, aggression and exertion painting her cheeks almost crimson.

“Come on, they're not gonna let you get back to full field duty like this,” he said with a cocky raise of his eyebrow that would only fuel the fire, “you gotta try a little harder, sweetheart.”

She took to him calling her nicknames extremely well – which was why she darted at him at full speed with a little battle cry instantly. She nearly managed to run him over but he was faster, half lifting her from the floor and tossing her over his shoulder. On the way down she locked her legs around his neck and brought him down with her and the for several minutes they went through every floor-based fighting combo there was until he had her pinned underneath him. Her breathing was strained and ragged and she stared daggers up at him. Ward lived for these moments because they were so charged you would have to be dead not to feel the static energy building up between them. She was acting like it wasn't there but there was a little flicker in her eyes and a little twitch of her features every time that gave her away. They kept coming, usually when the fighting turned horizontal. She tried to wiggle out of his grip and he laughed menacingly.

 

“Can't wait to get on top again, Skye?” He put more weight down on her and blocked her forward motion, “You like it better when you can look down on me, that always gets those cheeks flushed.”

“You sick bastard,” she spat and used he momentum he created pushing her back to get to her feet, knocking him away from him with her knees in the process, “Even on the floor I'm still looking down on you.”

“Oh, but _can_ you though?” Ward said, kicking one of her feet away and catching her fall mid-air, only to have her take him by the shoulder and use him as a lever to get back on her feet again, “I don't see you awfully bothered with beating the living shit out of me again and again. Poor thing, all this power, all this anger and nowhere to put it because _they_ wouldn't understand.”

“Shut up,” she said, attacking him from above but he anticipated where the next blow would be and blocked it. The one directly after hit him square in the jaw.

“You've changed, admit it,” he said, to buy time to recover, “you're not really alright up there with them, that's why we're here, that's why you can't sleep, you have darkness in you too and I'm the only one who gets it. So you keep coming down here, because you're happy here, you're ecstatic.”

“I am just following orders,” she said tight-lipped and side stepped his next lunge toward her, getting in a punch to his liver, “I don't want to be here.”

 

“Bullshit, Skye, it's the middle of the night, there's no need to be here right now if you didn't want to be,” Ward almost felt like chuckling, “you get _off_ on this, you're all hot and bothered over there with your panties in a knot because you can't get enough of doing my head in. So who's the psycho now, huh?”

She charged at him again, more vigorous even than before and ran him into the wall, grabbing hold of his shoulder and slamming it hard against the concrete, “Then why are you here, Ward? Because _you_ get off on being hurt? You like the pain? Think you deserve it for being a fucking traitor? Think I'll forgive you once I've finally broken your back? Think again.”

“You know why I'm here,” he snickered and grabbed her wrists to twist it, turn her around and push her chest first against the wall, “I'm here because I'm in love with you.”

 

She was rendered immobile with one arm trapped between her torso and the wall and the other on twisted behind her back. She winced in pain and squirmed.

“You're here because you're a masochist,” she said through gritted teeth and her neck bent awkwardly to be able to speak, “and you're delusional if you think I could ever, _ever_ love someone so toxic as you.”

“Yeah, _I'm_ toxic? I'm not the one who's making people explode left and right,” Ward said, slowly losing the firm hold on his temper, “I mean, who would I be if I'd let you out into the world like this? You're a danger to yourself and others. I'm really just doing the world a favor here, containing you. Maybe _you_ should be the one living in a cage.”

Skye screamed and kicked down on his foot with all her might, pulling his focus long enough so she could reverse their positions and hit his jaw with an uppercut that made him see stars.

“Or we could share,” he hit her back across the face and she staggered backward but not far, “be monsters toge-”

And then, somehow, inexplicably, one of her hands was around his throat and her lips on his, crashing down in an assault of an entirely different kind. She kissed him hard an sloppy, all tongue and teeth and jaws clashing and she brought her other hand up to rip into his black t-shirt.

 

Ward reacted without conscious thought, running on animal instinct. He buried one hand in her hair and grabbed so wildly at it that her hair-tie snapped while the other one found its way to the small of her back to pull her against his body. She intensified the kiss in response, breathing heavy and hungrily and made him loosen his grip on her to pull his shirt off his body. When she was done there was a second of pause between them, a heavy, in sync breath where something like madness crossed over her features and then they were at each other again. Ward felt his dick grow hard so quickly that parts of his brain were shutting off, all blood rushing down, and he wanted to bury himself inside this tiny devilish woman and slam into her again and again until he forgot who he was. Then he broke away from her and slid down against the wall to get to her feet and practically rip her shoes and socks off of her. He threw them far away and tucked her leggins down, helping her out of them speedy and expertly. Ward knelt to kiss the inside of her thighs and higher until he reached her center, already wet through her panties. He put his mouth over the fabric and let his tongue flick over the thin barrier. Skye already withered above him which made him slightly less patient then he would've normally been.

 

He mirrored her enthusiasm by ripping her panties from her, throwing them over his shoulder to her shoes and socks and she was freed for him. Quickly, and with his erection straining so hard against his boxer briefs it was remarkable he could still muster the coordination, he held on to her right thigh while the other steadied her by the hips and let his mouth find the way to her core again. He relished in the sensation. He claimed this all for himself, this new territory he wanted to own, and made it his mission to map out every inch of her with his tongue. Faintly, he heard one of her hands slap against the wall as she looked for purchase and the other pulled desperately at his hair.

Skye made little raspy sounds, choked up moans, that made it almost impossible to contain himself and if he'd been a little less alert and pumped up on adrenalin after their training session, he might've lost it then and there from her growls and yelps alone. Instead he pried his face away from her and she let out a heart-wrenching sigh of protest which told him to hurry up.

 

He rose up, pushing his pants and briefs down en route to meet her and kissed her hard while he lifted her up by the ass so she could hook her legs around his hips. And then, done playing around, he found his way inside. The first push was slow, savouring and he broke apart from the kiss to watch her face while he entered her. He found her with eyes wide open, a blazing look on her face and her teeth sinking into her puffy lips. She was so beautiful he was ready to cry and he wanted nothing more than to caress that face and cup her cheek and push that wild strand of hair behind her ear, wanted to whisper that he loved her and always would and that his world was so infinitely better with her in it. He wanted to make love to her slow and thorough, exploring her body for months but her face said _now, now, now_ and _faster_. And, significantly worse than that, he knew she did not want to be made love to by him. She wanted to be fucked but you could do that and still hate someone. Making love, well that was named for a reason.

 

“Grant,” she muttered, “please.”

He was as far in as he could at this angle and so he lifted her ass up some more and _ow_ , there it was. Her eyes bulged and she started rocking against him all by herself. That was all the invitation he needed and he thrust into her with abandon, trying at first to keep a sensible rhythm but soon failing ridiculously, loosing himself in it, getting incoherent. She felt so amazing around him, so tight, like she'd been waiting just for him, wet and welcoming and warm and so fucking serene he nearly wanted to believe in God. Skye's pulse was racing, he felt it drum against the skin of her neck as he kissed her there, barely able to bring his lips together and groaned whenever she let out a strained breath. He wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer.

 

But the importance of her release far surpassed his own and so he tried composing himself and when that failed, propped her back closer against the wall so he could use one hand to find her clit and flick and pad and run ghostly circles until she shrieked in his ear and her walls tumbled and trembled around him with such force, he was afraid she was making the ground shake along. Even if it had, he was too far gone, it could all have fallen to pieces around them, he wouldn't have noticed. Two more deep thrusts and he was a goner. He came hard and to the brink of insanity, biting down on her neck to the point of drawing blood. Skye didn't complain, she was still riding out her own orgasm on his dick when he was trying to somehow come back from his.

 

He held her like that for a bit. He didn't want her to get away because then it would be over. She would scramble away in a hurry to go and regret this and he would be left to deal with the ruins. And sure enough that was exactly what happened. She was long gone when Ward staggered back into his pants and had to sit down for a bit. His body was still tingling with the memory of her but his heart and brain had already galloped ahead to the bad place.

 

How was he ever going to get back from this? How could he live knowing that this was how it felt, this was how _she_ felt and not have her? How could he not go crazy loving this woman? He felt so sorely deprived of her already, he half wished he'd never known what he'd been missing. What if she'd bury herself so deep in guilt he'd lose her for good this time? What if she never spoke to him again? Could he live on this memory for the rest of his sorry life? Would he have to? He half-panicked when he found the memory already fading, already less immediate and then he collected his belongings in a hurry and got into bed in no time. Under the covers, he closed his eyes and committed all of what had happened to memory, the agents kind of memory, the one where he registered every touch, every sound, every taste, every scent. If this would really be the one and only time he could have her, he would live to keep the memory fresh.

 

It happened again five days later.

 

**

 

Skye could barely look Ward in the eye after. She was torn between craving whatever messed up, twisted release he'd given her and wanting to dismantle her own head to make just that craving go away. She hated him, he was a traitor and a liar and everything he ever did was manipulate people. She didn't want to fall prey to him again. But in her weak moments, when she would close her eyes to collect herself, she could see him so clearly, in the moment he'd first pushed inside her. There'd been nothing insincere there, just love, as hard as it was to admit. That unsettled her the most in all of this, how insane would someone have to be to fake that so convincingly? She spent five days trying to avoid him and he let her, but she could always feel his eyes on her. And where before he'd just monitored her, now there was hunger in his eyes that made her throat dry up and her groin tingle whenever she caught him staring.

 

Still, she was clear in her resolve. This was never going to happen again. But in the dark of the night she used her own hands to retrace his movements in her and deluded herself into thinking that this was enough, that it could break his hold on her. But then the next field mission came and they were stuck together in an abandoned office building at his sharp shooter post with her there to babysit him and make things shake if need be. He was so close and she had nowhere to run. It was hard to even concentrate on the talk from her earpiece, Coulson coordinating the operation when she could see Ward assembling his weapon from the corner of her eye. His hands were trained, expert and worked precise, those hands that had made her fall to shreds and she could still feel them on her, the memory sharp enough to make her wet despite herself. She shook her head and turned away from him to stand by the windows and she grabbed the window sill, feeling its frequency and making it shiver just enough to distract her. But she could also hear him, resonating. His heart was beating faster and to her, his buzzing was louder than anything else around her. She felt the shift instantly when he came toward her.

 

He only stopped when he was an inch away, bodies not touching yet but only barely and she could feel his breath hot against her neck. It was enough to make every hair on her body stand up. She gasped involuntarily and chastised herself for it.

“What a wonderful day to be out on a mission,” he said and she knew he was grinning smugly without having to turn to see it.

“Good day as ever,” Hunter said over their com and it reminded Skye that her team could hear everything.

She could just tell Ward to leave her alone and someone would push a button in mission control and knock him out. Just for two minutes but long enough to regain control of herself. But she didn't. Somehow, because she was a sick and twisted woman, she didn't.

 

Ward did not fail to notice and bridged the gap between them. She could feel him, already rock-hard against her ass and he brought his face down to the small of her neck, crazing her with his nose and lips but not kissing her – they would've heard that. Somehow that did not help to dampen her desire. She couldn't catch her breath and panted as quietly as she could as he was torturing her with letting that numbing tension built into tediousness. And then, when she was ready to burst, he put his hands on her hips, wandering forward, his hands snaking underneath her pants. When his fingers danced over the sensitive skin just beside her hip bones, she couldn't hold her head up any more and let it fall backwards against his shoulder. The blood rushing through her ears drowned out everything else and she was so focussed on not making a sound that she hardly noticed him unbuttoning her pants and his own and pushing hers down beneath her ass.

 

She came back to the world when his fingers found her. Maybe he'd wanted to make sure she was ready but she had been ready for quite some time. He chuckled at that.

“What's so funny, Ward?” Bobbi snickered in their ears, “Feeling trigger happy?”

Skye was beyond responding but Ward proved more resourceful.

“No, just a pleasant thought,” he said, measured, his voice not betraying anything.

“Well, I do hope you choke on it,” Bobbi spat but Skye barely heard because that was when Ward pushed into her. It was all she could do not to moan and she had to pry one hand away from the window sill to find his on her hip and dig her fingertips into his flesh.

 

And then he fucked her, with the same measure and control he'd had when talking to Bobbi and somewhere distant, she felt him watching her, his head next to hers, studying every flickering of her features. His thrusts were steady and deep and his free hand was buried in her slick folds, working his magic there. She felt worlds away, the only thing keeping her tethered to the floor him moving inside her. That was the only real thing. She was, at that precise moment too far gone to contemplate what that said about her. And then his movements became a little more erratic as he was nearing his own release and she let out a harsh breath in time with Coulson's voice in her ear saying: “Target is approaching, does everyone copy?”

Their team each gave their reply, one at a time and there was a little pause after Hunter when it was just the two of them left.

“Copy,” said Ward, more a growl than a word, through a clenched jaw and deep, staggering thrusts, Skye was starting to feel the inevitable build-up of an orgasm that would shatter her to the bones.

“Skye,” Coulson said, a hint of worry in his tone and Ward slammed into her only harder, “Skye, do you copy?”

“Copy,” she choked out and immediately after bit down so hard on her lip, she could taste blood.

“Good,” Coulson said, “everyone stand by for further instructions.”

 

Ward held her steady and thrust himself over the brink, sealing his mouth shut by biting down on her shoulder again, where the bruises of his teeth from five days earlier had just begun to fade and feeling him wither inside him, combined with his fingers twitching on her clit uncontrollably was enough to send her over the edge right after him. It was a miracle that she didn't scream but in her hand, the window sill crumbled to dust as she came, eyes firmly shut and fireworks exploding in the back of her lids. Ward had pried his one hand lose from hers to steady her as the support of the sill had literally turned to dust and held her while she came down to reality. Her head was clouded and the skin between her legs was damp with sweat and cum and her heart beat a thousand beats per minute. If anyone had been monitoring their vitals in mission control, they'd be having a real hard time explaining their in sync spikes in heart rate and adrenalin. But Skye couldn't be bothered with that now.

 

“All units ready to engage on my go,” said Coulson and simultaneous “copy”'s followed, from Skye and Ward too and he pulled out of her and pulled _up_ her pants and his. She fumbled numbly with the buttons and tried to keep herself upright as he took post at his shooting position. His hands and arms were steady, no quiver detectable but when she lifted her head to look at his face she found him looking at her. Again, there was that look, like he wanted to say something. Like she was the most beautiful thing in the world and it bore into her soul and gnawed at her heart and she couldn't bare it, had to look away. This man had lied about everything for a year, right to her face but always insisted that he loved her truly. But did he, really? And what would that mean? Could that one day change things? No, no. He was already getting into her head, she had to stop. This had to stop. That was the last of it, this time for real. She nodded to herself and locked it all up inside her, like she had learned and focused on the mission with all her mind. He would never get to touch her again.

 

It took just two days until her resolve crumbled to pieces.

 

**

 

Two days after Syke had let him have her a second, blissful, impossible time, Ward lay in bed, his dick in his hand, trying to conjure up the feeling of being inside her. He bit his lip and tried to remember her face twitching when he heard his door click open. He jumped, startled and embarrassed and padded his blanket over his sizeable erection and then he saw Skye, her cheeks red even in the dim light of the control panel by the door. She took in his position and connected the dots. Her face remained stern.

 

Ward cleared his throat, resolved not to feel stupid. There was no shame in what he was doing. He wanted her and if she didn't want him, he had to work through that alone. Yet, she was in his bedroom now, in the dead of night in nothing but a pair of men's boxers that looked awfully familiar and a tank top, no bra. What else would bring her to him than...what he could _do_ for her.

 

“It's awfully late for a casual drop-by,” Ward said, his voice raspy and low with lust, “and I don't suppose Coulson and May will like to see you sneak in here for some unsolicited sex when they rewind the tape tomorrow.”

“They will never see this,” she said grimly and he'd known she would already have some hack in place, “now shut your mouth and lose that blanket, I know what you were doing.”

She walked over to him with poignant strides and he obeyed, relieving his naked body. He'd opted for no clothes earlier, already knowing that he wouldn't be able to sleep before he got her out of her system just a little bit.

 

Skye seized him up, the first time, he realised, that she ever truly saw him naked, even if it was dark and he was half covered by shadows. Like the true demon she wanted him to be..but she was still here anyway. He sat further up to meet her. She straddled him with no pause or pomp and he let out a sharp breath when she ground her hips against his cock. The friction of the fabric of his skin had him close his eyes for a second. Her mouth fell open in a deep breath and she continued to rock against him.

 

“It's all for you,” he whispered and lifted her shirt over her breasts, withholding attention to them until he had gotten her out of the shirt and tossed it to the side, “I get hard every time I see you, you drive me nuts, fuck, Skye.”

“Ungh, shut up,” she struggled to say when he closed his mouth over one of her nipples while cupping her abandoned breast in his palm and then pinching the other. She moaned, high pitched, and accelerated the pace of her riding him through her boxers. Ward groaned and used his free hand to guide her movements by stroking her back in the rhythm she set.

“Fuck, take that thing off,” he growled and she made quick work of it, his cock twitching with the absence of her and he hunched forward to catch her in a sloppy and desperate kiss she brought a fire to that was inextinguishable. And then like a shot, she had lowered herself onto him, still connected at open, panting and crashing lips and rode him like an electric bull.

 

He moaned into her mouth and felt her fire curse through him, felt, for the first time, how she amped up his frequency, syncing it with her own, putting her in tune with her so they moved as one. Her kisses were an inferno and the sounds they made were lightning and he wanted to burst with her, to explode into her and never ever stop. Skye took him in with abandon and broke the kiss to push him down onto the mattress, changing the angle of penetration and he had to grab her hard by the hips to keep himself from bursting. She smiled a delicious, deviant smile and put her hands flat on his chest to give herself some support, driving her hips into his again and again.

 

“Fuck,” he breathed, “You're killing me.”

But she didn't care about that. She rode him with selfish greed and didn't stop until she had crumbled around him. He was out of breath when she moved to leave him, to leave him useless and used and he wouldn't have it.

“You're not going anywhere,” he said, “I'm not done with you yet.”

And he turned them around and put her leg over his shoulder and paid her selfishness back in kind. He chased his own pleasure then, shifted and twisted her until it was just right and he came with a wince and a shudder and collapsed beside her on his small single bed.

 

They were both panting from the exertion and he thought he'd felt her come a second time but couldn't be sure. It didn't matter now, what mattered was that she couldn't just up and leave him like this.

“Stay with me?” He asked, a little too hopeful not to sound broken when she sat up and gathered her things. She looked at him, so long he half-believed she would actually stay but then she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

“I can't,” she said, “this has to stop.”

With that, she left him in the darkness.

 

**

 

It didn't stop. Skye seemed to tell herself every time that she wouldn't do it again but Ward knew she was always going to come back. And it became more frequent, twice a week at least, that she would sneak into his bed at night or they would scramble into an unmonitored hall and into a supply closet to do it standing up, or half leaning on shelves, him eating her out until her legs gave way.

 

He consumed her like she was all nourishment he needed and she took him for all he was worth. The first time she took his cock into her hands and then into her mouth he nearly passed out. That went on for weeks and no one suspected a thing. They weren't hostile with each other but they barely talked. As it was with them, they still barely talked. They trained together and went on missions together but any real conversation he tried to have with her she shot down. He wanted more than to dig his fingers and tongue into her shuddering warmth every other night but he took what he got. He was convinced by now that she would come around eventually, that she would one day believe that his feelings were true and that he would never, could never do anything to hurt her. He could only hope that once she knew this, maybe things would change.

 

Until then, he was fine as it was.

 

Right to the point when they had to work with the _Afterlife_ people on a case and Ward saw how that Lincoln guy still looked at Skye and worse, how Skye looked at him – like he was a lifeline, a way into the light. A way away from him, and how he presumed she saw him; as deep, destructive darkness.

 

They were staying at a cheap motel somewhere in the middle of Nevada where there was five residential buildings, one restaurant and one gas station and Skyes room was two doors down from him. When he went, initially to inconspicuously buy condoms at the gas station (Skye had told him three days ago, curt and emotionless, that she had been sick from a mishap while controlling her abilities and couldn't be sure her contraception would work), he ran into her when she came out of her room. All dolled-up in a dress that he could picture especially well around her ankles as he wrote 'love' on her clit with his tongue.

 

“And where are you going?” He asked her, unsure if he wanted an answer.

“For drinks,” she said, almost convincingly unaffected, “with Lincoln.”

Ward's face fell and his hands balled into fists on their own accord. He could feel himself slipping because he was terrified she could be slipping away from _him_.

“Got a problem with that?” She looked up at him challengingly and he dug his fingernails into his palms to keep from pushing her back into the room and locking her in with him.

“No, not at all,” he smiled despite himself and the vein on his forehead that felt close to popping.

“I thought so,” she quipped and turned to leave. There was a tiny flicker of regret in her features when she passed him that appeased him ever so slightly, mostly because he was convinced it had escaped her herself. But he still had no calm minute waiting for her to get back.

 

When she did, he went to his window because due to the L-shape of the building, he had a pretty good view at her door when he craned his neck. Skye had her arm hooked under Lincoln's and walked like she'd had a glass of wine too many. Her glazed-over-eyes helped solidify this suspicion. They reached her door and talked for a bit, with Lincoln grinning at a thousand watts and Skye giggling, honestly giggling at him. And then he tipped his head down and kissed her, lightly, innocently and Skye had closed her eyes. They broke apart and she smiled and Ward stopped breathing, his pulse racing and jaw clenching..he didn't know what he would do if she took him inside her room.

But she didn't. She rose to her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek and then waved as he walked away – not before turning to look at her again, with his goody-two-shoes grin. Skye turned to let herself in and when she did, she caught him staring out the window. Her features hardened and she went inside.

 

Ward stepped away from the window, trying to regain control of his heart and his senses but as composed as he would have needed to be with his years and years of training, Skye still remained his weak spot and so he was out of his door in an instant and knocked on hers with force a moment later.

 

She opened up quickly, already in her sleeping clothes, in that same pair of boxers she wore when she'd first come to his room and a plain shirt. Her expression was less than amicable.

“What do you want?” She was abrasive, “Have you spent all day gawking out that window to catch me come back?”

“You kissed him,” Ward said, incredulously, “that boyscout. Really, Skye?”

“I can do whatever I damn well please,” she said and shoved his shoulder hard, “and you have no say whatsoever in who kisses me.”

“Oh yeah?” He challenged and gathered her into his arms while throwing the door shut behind them. He crashed his lips down hard on hers and met no resistance. He had her out of her clothes in record time and threw his own shirt on the small pile of hers. He kept kissing her as he wiggled out of his jeans and socks – shoes still in his room – and fumbled open and on a condom from his jeans pocket.

 

She was pushing and pulling him an he responded in kind, rough and menacing, biting and gnawing at her, sucking at her soft skin to leave his marks on her. He didn't care if the team found out now, he wanted to show the world what they did to each other. He buried himself deep inside her, not able to even make it to the bed and fucked her upright against the wall next to the door to the bathroom.

 

She gasped and panted, his mouth sucking at her pulse point and fingers digging into her flesh. She would have bruises in the morning. _Good_ , he thought. He broke away to look at her, still pumping away, thrusting with force and desperation.

“Look at me,” he bellowed and she opened her eyes, breathing hard and heavy, “you're _mine_. You can tell yourself whatever you like and go get drunk with a hundred guys to forget they're not me and you can kiss and fuck them all but you'll always come back here.”

To make his point he measured his thrusts more and underlined his verbal points with each stroke. It was getting harder to form words with his own clouding brain but he kept at it. She couldn't get away from him now and he wasn't sure if she would ever let him get words like this in after.

 

“You'll always come back to this,” he drove deeper into her and deeper yet, “because I'm the only one who can truly contain that darkness inside you. Because I got my own. I fucking know you, Skye, better than you know yourself, and they'll never make you happy like I can. I watch you fall apart around me every time like the universe is opening up to you. You could still very well do without that, without me..but the truth is, _you don't want to_.”

She stared at him, pupils dilating and he knew she heard him but struggled to keep up. He didn't blame he and could feel the familiar tremble of her muscles around him. She was close.

“You love this,” he thrust harder, getting closer to finishing himself, “you crave me, my fingers on you and my cock inside you, huh? Right? Just like this, right here. But it isn't just that, is it? You're chasing this high with me every time but other guys could fuck you just as well, not quite as well as me, but they could. But you want _me_ , even if you're too scared to admit it.”

She started to gasp and moan and quiver and he picked up the pace again, hell-bent of driving her out of her mind.

 

“You can't stay away from me because no matter how you try and deny it, you love me too, Skye,” he said, slamming into her like his life depended on it, “ _you love me_ , light and dark and everything, and I don't care how long it takes until you can admit it to me but fuck, just admit it to yourself.”

She faintly shook her head, with her mouth already open to scream and he finished her with a slight readjustment of their positions and she did scream, his name of all things. His first name, which was what did it for him.

 

He still kept on pushing into her after both their orgasms had faded and he went nearly limp before he pulled out and put her onto shaky feet again. She kept that blessed mouth of hers, that usually never stood still, shut tight and frustration tangled itself with his sense of release.

 

“You know, maybe you're right,” he said eventually, while getting rid of the used condom and stepping back into his pants, not knowing what else to do, “maybe we should stop. Until you're ready to own up to why we're really doing this..and I know _I_ gave you those boxers to you back in Paris when you forgot to bring pyjamas.”

 

He left her with his shirt and that to think about. The air was still hot and stuffy outside so he didn't shiver one bit with his bare skin. That only happened from shock when May was suddenly out of her own door and blocked his way back to his room.

“What were you doing in there?” Her face said she was willing and ready to put him down on the spot.

“You know what we're doing,” he said, “and it's her choice as much as mine, so get out of my way.”

“If you hurt her again, I swear to God,” she said.

“Get. Out. Of. My. Way,” he spat and after a moment that could have as well have ended with him riddled by bullets, she stepped aside. Because she knew killing him would kill Skye all the same.. _because even May knew that_.

He threw his door shut behind him just as he saw Skye let in May and he couldn't sleep for hours, wondering if they talked about him. And what Skye thought.

 

**

 

Ward hadn't touched her in days. Hadn't even tried to. He was civil and had her back in the field as always but he acted like it didn't cause them both physical pain, like junkies on cold turkey, to not be together. It gnawed at her and chipped away at her concentration. And she couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said. About loving him, about never getting over that. She was still as messed up about it as she was when May found her, shaking and crying after he had left her. May'd been furious and she had asked her without a shred of a joke if she wanted her to put a bullet between his eyes.

“No,” she had nearly screeched, “ _I'm_ doing this to _him_.”

And that was true, if anything was. She had started this, she had kissed him first and she had let it go on...she had come back and back again, just like he'd said.

 

It didn't make sense. After all he'd did, how could she not hate him? How could she want him around her, _inside_ her? Could he really be right? Truthfully, she didn't know anymore. She didn't know anything anymore. And a week into this, she had gotten so wound up in her own head that she slipped in the field and brought a building down on seven Hydra operatives and two men of S.H.I.E.L.D...innocent men, who had thought they would get back to their families in the evening.

 

When the shock had passed and Skye came to it, in the middle of the following day, waddled in blankets in some hotel room at the Costa Rican coast, she felt like jumping out of the window. She paced the room, not knowing what to do with herself. She deliberated talking to Coulson, to May or call for Gordon and see her mother but beneath all of that was a pull she couldn't deny. One person she really wanted to see and she resisted going to him as long as she could.

 

It was dark out when she knocked on his door. She was crying silently. Because she had killed two people and because standing there meant admitting that he'd been right. That she would always come back to him and that he was the only one who could keep that darkness in check. And that if he'd been right about these things, he could just as well be right about the other.

 

When he opened the door and saw her, something cracked open in his face. He knew what had happened, had been there with her and after but she'd shut down so quickly, she hardly remembered what he said to her. Now he opened his arms and it was all she could do not to fling herself into them and knock him over. He embraced her slowly and held her there for a while, in the doorway, kissing the crown of her head and striking out her back.

 

“Shh,” he hummed, while a new way of sobs shook her violently, “it's okay, I'm here.”

He took her inside and sat her down on the bed. She cried and cried and he kissed her face and caressed her cheek and whispered that everything was going to be alright.

“No, nothing is,” she sobbed, “I killed two innocent people yesterday, I did that, I took their lives, I'm...I'm a monster.”

“Don't say that,” Ward insisted and took her face in both hands to make her look at her, “don't ever say that. That's me, remember, not you. It was an accident, they shouldn't have been standing where they stood, it wasn't your fault.”

“But I should've checked, dialled it back,” she said, “Grant, I am the reason they're dead.”

“And the reason why thousands are alive,” he said softly, “don't do that to yourself. Thousands of people are alive tight now because you stopped Hydra, _thousands_.”

 

She didn't hear him, she could just go on crying.

“Skye, please don't,” he begged, “don't go there, don't hide in the darkness, that's my place, I'm keeping it occupied for you...so you don't have to go there yourself..stay here, please, please, just listen.”

She shook her head weakly, “I don't deserve the light.”

“Yes, yes you do,” Ward said and to coax her into looking at him but she denied herself that, if he gave her that look that said his world began and ended with her it would brighten her up from inside, like a ripple effect and she didn't get to have that.

“Please, Skye,” he said, “please, everyone still loves you. _I_ love you.”

“How can you?” She asked under her breath, ignoring the tuck at her heart, “I'm not even human.”

“I don't care what you are,” he said, “I loved you since you tried to flirt yourself out of that interrogation room with me.”

 

“Yeah, and then I shot you and walked over your body,” she said, starring at her knees.

“That means nothing now, Skye,” he said, even a trace of a chuckle in his voice, “I don't think it ever really did matter.”

“I'm sorry,” she said and took one of his hands.

“You don't have to be sorry,” he said and got closer, squeezing her hand, “for anything.”

“Yes, I do,” she said, “I used you, this whole time and all you did since Vault D was be honest and truthful with me and I never believed you. All you said...it was _all_ true.”

A new wave of sobs hit her and his grip on her intensified.

“Skye, please,” his voice was dense and very near tears, “It'll always be true, I'll always be here, I'm not going away, no matter what you do. I love you so much. I never cared about Hydra. Or even S.H.I.E.L.D. I misplaced my loyalties once and I'm not gonna do that again. I'm with you, Skye, I can't ever not be. I love you and I can make it better. Please, let me show you, please, let me make it better.”

Skye couldn't keep her resolve. She knew she didn't deserve it but she raised her head anyway, maybe to just catch a glance at him but once she had, she couldn't look away.

 

And he smiled and it yanked at something deep inside her, yanked it toward the light of day. And he kissed her like he never had before. It was slow and soft and sweet, like a feather, and he poured himself entirely into it. He coaxed her out of her sitting position and shifted with her until she lay under him on the bed and kept kissing her. It felt almost like a different person, except the steadiness, the measure he brought to nearly everything, that was still there. That was all Ward. It dulled her senses and deluded the pain.

 

“I love you,” he said and kissed her lips, “I love you,” the side of her face, “I love you,” her neck, “I love you,” her collar bone.

“I love you,” and he took her vest off and rolled her shirt up a little, “I love you,” kissed her stomach, “I love you,” her hip bone and then stripped her out of her jeans and panties, placing kisses on every inch of revealed skin. Even the bottom of her feet – until he worked his way up again.

“I love you,” a kiss to either inner thigh, “I love you.” And then he lavished on her with abandon and patience and care until it was all she could do to grab the sheet and his hair and cling to sanity.

She winced and then he came up again, after pushing his own pants down.

He held her gaze when he entered her, ever so slowly and his eyes spoke of the love he couldn't put to words anymore. He took her with care and patience and she heard him buzz, his frequency one she could pick out of anything and from miles away, she let her own heartbeat fall into pace with his for the first time, instead of the other way around.

 

When she came, she started crying again and he let her fall and shatter and then put her back together until he followed her climax with a growl. He stayed inside of her, head buried in her hair and she loved his weight, so real there and so solid. Like a promise that he would stay, that this weight would keep her tethered to reality, to sanity. She turned her head so her forehead touched the side of his face and she listened to him breathe. She felt like overflowing.

 

“I love you, too,” she whispered and she could practically hear the cracking of the constraints she had put on her heart. And it was true. For better or worse, she loved him, had loved him for a while now and it felt good to know it. For all he was or had been, he had not failed her since that promise he made and every touch had underlined this, swore to it.

“Don't leave me alone here,” she muttered.

“Never,” he said and she turned to look at him – it was unlike anything she had ever seen. There was a supernova in his eyes and it blasted into her and lit up every last corner, every wrinkle in her heart and soul and it was everything.

 

 _He_ was everything.

 

 


End file.
